Coptic Church Plans To Settle In Oviedo

OVIEDO — This city, which is known for its large Slavic community and Lutheran congregation, is about to become the home of another ethnic group and church complex.

Representatives for the Coptic Orthodox Church plan to build a sanctuary and nursery school on five acres it bought last week on State Road 426.

The congregation has been holding services at the Altamonte Springs Seventh-day Adventist Church.

The Coptic Orthodox Church, also known as the Church of Alexandria, is an Egyptian Christian denomination.

More than 60 families -- most of whom are Egyptian immigrants -- will come from as far away as St. Petersburg to attend services in Oviedo when the sanctuary is completed.

Sunday services are similar to Catholic or Greek Orthodox celebrations, said Ramzi Boutros, 58, vice president of the church's board of directors and a retired importer-exporter who lives near Altamonte Springs.

The hierarchy of the church is made up of deacons, priests, bishops and a pope. Weekly services include a sermon, songs, prayer and communion.

The Rev. Ekladious Khalil, priest at the church for about one year, likens the service to that of the Greek Orthodox Church. Men sit on the left side of the sanctuary and women and children sit on the right. The men receive communion first and on a different side of the sanctuary than the women, who wear veils while taking communion.

''The women in our church are very well respected, but they don't have leading roles,'' Khalil said. ''Our services are very sacred and we try to be very respectful.''

The church, which is a member of the World Council of Churches, has gone through many changes through the years, but members pride themselves on its apostolic beginnings.

''It's hard for the Coptics from Egypt to go to another church,'' said Boutros, who moved to the United States in 1981. ''They don't feel right unless they can go to their own church. It's a very important part of their lives.''

There are about 25 million Coptics in Egypt, Africa and Ethiopia and about 700,000 in the United States and Canada.

All Coptic congregations are under the rule of His Holiness Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria.

In 1973 Pope Shenouda III met with the Roman Catholic Pope Paul VI and both signed a declaration that, in terms of faith, both churches are one. However, they recognized the differences in some dogmas and rituals, said the Rev. Gabriel Abdelsayed, who founded the Central Florida congregation in Orlando in 1984.

The Coptics trace their roots back to Jesus and say the founder of their religion is St. Mark, one of Jesus' disciples.

Mark, credited with writing the second gospel, migrated to Alexandria, the capital of Egypt, between 48 and 55 A.D. His first convert was a Jew named Anianus, whom he later ordained bishop, Abdelsayed said.

After extensive travel, Mark returned to Alexandria to find that the congregation had multiplied and had built its first cathedral.

Soon after his return, Mark was killed by pagans who attacked the cathedral. His body was buried under the altar of the church. In 828 A.D., Venetian merchants took his headless body to Venice, Abdelsayed said.

Abdelsayed, who now serves in New Jersey, is one of the leaders of the church in the United States.

The Coptic Orthodox Church in Oviedo is expected to be completed next year. The property, which cost $12,000 an acre, will be used not only for the church and nursery school, but also is planned to include a day-care center, said Marian Adams, the real estate agent who represented the church in the land deal.

Adams said the congregation hopes first to pay off the land, then build on it. Until then, members will continue meeting at the Seventh-day Adventist Church, 455 Maitland Ave., Altamonte Springs.